the proof of this joy in me

Hola, 皆さん( everyone)! 元気 ( how are you)?
Well the repot for this week. Ok well we had an interesting week
that’s for sure.we had things that went wrong and a lot of things that
went right. Last Wednesday we had an iPad exchange conference so we
all got new iPads and with the new start we are no longer allowed to
use Facebook for a couple of months or so. So basically I will be able
to use it when I’m about to go home. Can you believe it? It’s going by
so quick. I only have three transfers left and then I will be home
soon. I get to skype everyone again in the next month and a half. Woot
woot. Ok well no really writes me to often anymore so it must be true
when they say by the end of your mission your letters start to die
out. Well I love you all any way. I will miss Facebook though. I admit
it was a good way to see how everyone was doing even though they don’t
write me. But now I don’t have that luxury so you will have to pull up
the slack and write me :-). Tyler? Chad? Shanna? Travis? Kylan?
Kierra? Mom? Mom is still pretty good even though it comes late.
Travis how are you, Melissa,McKenna,and new baby boy Joseph? I can’t
wait to see all these new babies. Chad how is the family? Tyler how is
Liz and work? Shanna how is that little girl, Daniel and your
pregnancy going?
As for my week we got a new investigator. Her name is Sakura. She is
16 yrs old and she is so cute. Our first lesson with her was kind of a
disaster. We didn’t scare her away or anything we just did a terrible
job teaching her what needed to be taught. After her lesson sister
Wilson and I went over the lesson and determined what went wrong and
wrote down the things we wish we had said instead. So we will be
better prepared next time. But doing that really helped us for the
next lesson we had with Hikari. Hikari is 15 yrs old. And she is the
cutest thing ever. Her lesson went awesome. The spirit was strong and
we really explained our purpose and our expectations and she told us
hers. We explained about how our message is there for her to accept it
and as she does the things we tell her to do she will receive answers
and will feel God in her life. It was such a good lesson. You could
see that she couldn’t wait to learn more where as with Sakura she
kept looking at the clock waiting for us to end. It’s ok we are not
perfect and we know that. We still lots of room to grow and become
better. This week should be fun with all the happy Easter activities
going on. Well family, that is all for this week. I love you

So much happened this weekend and then not a lot happened. To start
out our we week we had a mission conference and Elder Nelson came and
spoke to us. It was way good! I love Elder Nelson. He was awesome! I
liked this conference better then Elder Ballards but his was good too.
We had a special conference about the proper use of electric devices
aka iPads . We have to return our iPads that we have now and we will
be getting new ones this week. And as part of that we will be taking a
break from Facebook for about 3 months or something like that. We
actually don’t know how long until we get to use again, it’s all up to
our mission president. When he feels we are ready to use it again he
will tell us. We had Another conference the next day after that. It
was a long week of a lot of sitting but it was a good spiritual
booster. These conferences lasted all day too. Man I’m just so
exhausted but it was good. This last weekend we had another ward
activity and we went to Kamakura which is a really old area of Japan
but it is also a very big tourist area too. The walked around to all
the old Shrine temples and then we went and saw Big Buddah. It was so
fun. We took a potential investigator of ours. She is actually
straight up crazy! But she just needs love. She is looking for
acceptance and love but she is a pathological liar. She really lies
about everything. She is older, she is in her 50’s. She says she is
married to an American and she showed us pictures but we think she is
just obsessed with the guy in her pictures. She says he lives in
America. She was born and is from Seattle Washington and she is grew
up there. Her english is pretty good but I would never had thought she
was from America. But we can’t tell what she lies about and what she
doesn’t. She is obsessed with the Elders. At one point she wasn’t
going to come and asked us to take pictures of the elders for her. Of
coarse we told her we couldn’t that that is inappropriate. So when she
showed us her picture album we found all of these pictures of a
previous elder who use to serve here. And now she loves this new
Elder, Christensen Choro. She is crazy. She has been around for a
really long time. The whole ward knows all about her. She use to come
to the english class we teach and then she would tell lies about the
church to people and then we would never see those people again. She
no longer comes to English class because we got rid of the advanced
class. She wasn’t the only one, I guess there was a group of them that
would come to the advanced class and bash the church. It was just a
huge mess. We hadn’t seen this lady for a while but then recently she
has been showing up again. She comes to church sometimes. I don’t
know. I know she has a sickness but she is a little crazy. But we just
love her anyway. Her name is Kyoko. Anyways she came with us to
Kamakura because she wanted to see the elders. Well family that is
from me. I love you!! 愛しています！

Hello family! This week has been a pretty awesome week. We have been
teaching a lot and staying busy and I like it. Yesterday was a great
day. So we have this investigator who has a baptismal date but
struggles coming to church. We had a lesson about the importance of
coming to church and we really tried to have her see the blessings she
can get from coming. She finally committed to coming to sacrament
meeting. And then after sacrament meeting we had a baptism so she said
she would come to that too. We tried to have her bring her family
but she said it would probably just be herself. So church roles around
and she doesn’t show. We thought for sure she wasn’t even coming but
we went outside and saw her and her family pull up in the drive way.
She made in time for the baptism. And she brought her family. We were
so excited. The husband didn’t come in. He just dropped them off. But
it was a great day. We had 9 non members come to the baptism
yesterday! It was amazing. We may have not properly prepped her well
enough though. She was surprised and kinda seemed uncomfortable at the
end. But we will see her on Wednesday so we can work our her concerns.
But please pray for her. Her name in Kaneko San. It was a great week.
Sorry that is it from me for now. Love you all

Ok so this week has been crazy busy. And it’s just started. I told you
last week that we got a baptismal date!! What!! I’m way excited.
Kaneko san agreed to a baptismal date and she is planning on getting
baptized 5/17. I couldn’t believe it. This last transfer has been
amazing! So many miracles. We asked Tomomi san if she was ready to be
baptized and she is not quit ready yet but she will be praying for a
baptismal date. I’m way stoked! So many miracles. And then to top it
off the two little girls we work with, one of them got up during
testimony meeting and bore her testimony! She was so sticken cute. She
just got up and said how they have been coming to church since last
August and she was very grateful to all the missionaries. It was so
cute. Luckily we have a plan. On Saturday we are doing an activity
with them and with another member and her daughter. The members
daughter ( Remi) is getting baptized this Sunday so we are going to
talk about her baptism with the girls. And hopefully we can teach them
with out directly teaching them. Someday they will for sure get
baptized, it just might later in their life. In the mean while we are
still trying to figure out how to meet the mom to get real permission
to teach them. Oh I just love this place. My new companion is awesome.
I don’t see us having any problems ( at least for now) 🙂 ha ha jk. I
love her. Things are going really good. We are crazy busy with lessons
this week. With members, less actives, potential investigators and
actual investigators. I love being this busy. If all goes according to
plan we would have taught almost 30 lessons this week. And that is an
amazing week. I’m so excited. I’m in my 9 th transfer which means
after this transfer I only have 3 more left. And next transfer I get
to call home again…. Woot woot! And that will be the last one until
I come home. Well family, I love you!!

So this week we got transfer calls. And today was Temple p-day which
is why I did not write yesterday. So as far as transfers go I get to
stay in the area that I love so much and I get a new companion, Wilson
Shimai. She is Polynesian and has this beautiful long curly hair that
I’m way jealous of. I heard she is very easy going so I’m excited. But
there is more I was also called as Sister training leader, bluh. Not
to happy about that part. To much responsability that I don’t want to
be accountable for. Oh well I will take it and run. Pray for me so I
don’t screw everything up. Jk. I don’t think it will be a problem (
hopefully). As far as investigators go, we taught Kaneko san last week
and we asked her if she wanted to be baptized and she said someday she
will. So tomorrow’s lesson we want to set a date with her. I’m so
excited. And then we have Tomomi san who is awesome. She is our new
investigator. Last week she was having a hard time and we went and
visited her to drop off a belated valentine and we had an amazing
break through with her. She was crying that night because she is
struggling going through a divorce and she had been praying to know if
God was there. When we showed up she said she knew that God was their.
We testified and comforted her and then we had her open the BOM to a
random page so she could get an answer. The scripture we found was
about praying and fasting and they did wax strong in their faith. We
asked her if she knew what fasting was and she did not know. So we
told her it is a way to get extra strength and help from God. We asked
her if she wanted to fast and she said yes. So we fasted together on
Wednesday. It was awesome. We all broke the fast together by having
dinner but I had to be quick because we had to get back for teaching
English class, so we weren’t able to teach a lesson. But she said she
liked it. We were suppose to have an appointment with her that
following Friday but her son got sick and she couldn’t do it. We are
going to visit her tonight. So hopefully we can teach her then. I’m
pretty sure she is going to get baptized sometime in the future. I’m
loving this area. We are seeing so much success it’s awesome. Well
that’s all for me. Love you all

It’s official, Moeka got baptized this last Saturday. Woo how. I
didn’t get to go to the baptism but my heart was still there with her.
It’s fun to share the gospel. I love it. Last Friday we had a sisters
conference and it was a lot of fun. I got sick this past weekend. I
have been throwing up. Yesterday I was feeling queazy on and off. I
made it through church just fine but hat night we went to a members
house for dinner and we had authentic Chinese food because she is
Chinese. Well she had us help her prepare it and it was raw meat. I
must say that is not the most appealing smell when you are not feeling
to well. And then we ate it. She prepared a LOT of food. I ate a lot
but not as much as the others, and then on top of that we had to bike
home. Let me just say I was proud of myself for holding it in until we
made it home. Not a fun experience. Well I’m feeling much better
today. I think I threw up most of the junk yesterday.
The two girls haven’t come to church these past two weeks. I’m way sad
about that. But we keep visiting them and they want to come but they
decide to play instead or they have to do chores or something. We are
trying to set up an activity with them this week, they want to make
pancakes. 🙂 we have a new investigator, Tomomi, and she is my age
and has a 5 yr old son. I may have already talked about her before but
we taught her last Wednesday and it went great. She really wants to
know for herself. We have hope in this one. We really feel she could
get baptized but of coarse we can never make that choice for her . All
we can do is invite. I really hope things go good with her. Keep her
in your prayers.
Other then that I have nothing else. I love you all!!

Hello everyone. We have seen some miracles this past week. I know I
have written before and told you of the girl we found on my first day
in Japan. But you all may have forgotten that story so I will tell it
again. My first day I got to be a real missionary. I woke up got ready
and went out with an older missionary ( a person who has been out on
the mission longer) to get our first experience to proselyte. The
first person I talked to was this girl and I noticed she had a CTR
ring on, so I asked her if she was a member. She said no, she did a
home stay in America and stayed with a LDS family and they got her the
ring when she left. Well as the conversation went on I didn’t say much
because I didn’t speak much Japanese. After that I got sent to
Fujisawa to no longer hear about what happened. I had no idea that she
started coming to eikaiwa ( English class) well long story short
almost a year later (11 months to be exact ) she has decided to be
baptized. Her baptism is this Friday. She is the cutest thing. She
wrote her family in America and sent a postcard with just her
baptismal date on it. So cute. She was worried about her dad being
against it but after she talked to him about it he came to church to
check it out and he told her that if she gets baptized then she has to
stay devoted to this faith for the rest of her life. And of coarse she
gladly accepted. It just goes to show that we don’t see all the seeds
that we plant grow, but God sees everyone and he really does have a
plan for everyone. I’m so grateful to have been the person to invite.
I was a tool in Gods hands. But it’s also way cool because she was the
very first person I talked to. 🙂 so fun! I’m so grateful for the
gospel and I love to see people come closer to Christ and to accept
him as their savior. I love his gospel. I hope everyone is praying
everyday. Just be praying we are utilizing the atonement. I hope
everyone uses it multiple times through out the day. Love you all!!
I’m grateful to have you for eternity.
Ohh and I forgot, we went hiking with the ward this last Saturday. We
hiked up mount Takao. I will be sending you some fun pictures and
videos. I will upload them onto Facebook as well. Takao is so cool.
They have all these shrines and temples and they way up and down. I
hope one day to take my family to these areas. They are so fun.

Ok I’m loving this area. I was really sad at first to leave Hachioji
but this area is just full of promises. We are working with two little
girls. Megumi 10 yrs old and Nozomi 8 yrs old. I think them alone make
this move worth it. They are so cute. So we can’t actually teach them
because we need permission form their mom. But the mom did give us
permission to do activities with them. So every week we try and do
something with them. The amazing thing about them is that they come to
church every Sunday since the sister missionaries found them in July.
Last Saturday we made no bake cookies and we did teach them how to
pray.( yes with out permission, hopefully it doesn’t bite us in the
butt). But it was so cute because when we first taught them to pray
they were nervous to pray, but after learning and trying it just one
time they want to pray all the time now. Megumi is more mature and
calm whereas Nozomi has a short attention span. Megumi told us that
she is going to pray all the time now, before bed, before school,
before leaving the house, before meals. It was so cute. And then on
Sunday they wanted to volunteer to pray for everything. They prayed
for the wards shokuji ( mealtime) after church in front of everyone.
Soo cute right?! And since coming to church they participate in
everything. In July they new nothing about God and Jesus Christ and
now they raise their hands in primary to answer the questions. Oh and
e best part is I get to go to primary with them. I LOVE it so much.
Sunday I felt like a proud mom just watching them grow and
participate. They even sang with the primary in sacrament meeting. So
they are basically members they just aren’t baptized. We are going to
try and talk to the mom again and ask for permission to teach them the
lessons.

Then we have Minami 17 yrs old and Hikari 15 yrs old. They are so cute
too! See what I mean about this place? Did I mention I LOVE it? Ha ha.
Any ways, Minami loves missionaries and english. She will come to game
night but as far as real interest in the church I’m not sure. Hikari
on the other hand has been doing personal progress with the sister
missionaries. I was able to teach her for the first time on Saturday
night and we asked her if she wanted to take the actual lessons and
she said yes. I mean she is doing personal progress for goodness sake
I think it’s time to get her baptized! So freakin cute! All of these
girls!!! I really hope I stay here the rest of my mission. I would
really like to see them continue to progress and grow and get
baptized.

So as you can tell I’m doing great! I’m loving my mission and the
people I get to teach! This transfer we have been working harder and
seeing tons of miracles because of it. Pleas pray for these girls. My
goal is to get at least 4 baptisms. I think they are ready. 🙂 any
ways love you everyone.

Hello family. How is everyone? I’m good. I have transferred over to
Hodogaya and this place is not as pretty or as cool as my last place
so I’m kinda bummed. But I live close to Yokohama so we will probably
do a p-day or two there every once in a while. My apartment is
awesome. I have a two story apartment so it’s nice and roomie. And it
is only 2 sisters who live there not 4 like the usual circumstance. So
there are some plus’ to this move. So far the ward is great. They are
all really nice. Oh I did go to the doctors the other day. I was sick
2 weeks ago and I had sinus pressure that went into my ear and i got
really dizzy from it. The pressure and the sickness went away but I
still get a little dizzy sometimes so we went and got it checked out.
They said it was nothing to be concerned about. My ear still showed
some stimulation ( I’m wondering if she meant swelling) from the
pressure but they gave me a prescription and sent me on my way. It
should go away but if it continues after 10 days then I will go back
and get another check up. Ohh another down side to this new area I
have moved to is that it is full of hills. I HATE hills!! I hate
biking with hills so I mostly just walk them. These are not hills that
you can just push through it, these hills are like Monsters. They suck
just to walk up them. Oh well. I was able to meet two little girls
that the sisters have been working with. One is 8 and the other is 9.
They come to church every week. The sisters never got permission to
teach them from the parents so we can’t teach them but the mom did
give permission to do activities and church. So of coarse we can work
with that. They walk themselves every Sunday to church. And they are
the cutest things. I’m excited to work with them. Other then that we
need to find people to teach. So we will be doing a lot of finding.
Well family that is about it for now. I love you all!!!

So I got transferred. I’m way bummed. I was only in Hachioji for 2
transfers( 3 months) and I love it here. I wanted to stay, and I
thought I was staying so when I got the call that I was transferring I
was way suprised. But on a happy note I am going to be companions with
Ashby Shimai again. She was my companion on my second transfer here in
Japan. I’m excited to be with her again. It will be fun. I’m
transferring to Hodagaya. I’m now on my 8 th transfer and after my 12
th transfer I come home. So it won’t be long. Oh and just an
announcement, it is probably very unlikely but I wanted to put it out
there just in case. If anyone wants to come to Japan to pick me up
they can. But I would need to know probably pretty soon because they
book our flights home 6 months in advanced and they will ask me if any
one is picking me up to prepare for it. I know Kylan wants to come.
But this is the other thing I’m a very poor missionary so if anyone
does come they will have to pay for me too when It comes to the
accommodations and stuff. Just FYI :-)) ( super huge smiley face) ;-)!
Food for thought. Well things here are really good. I can truly say I
love my mission now. It took me a year but better late then never. If
it took me a year to adjust to missionary life I’m scared how long it
will take me to adjust back to normal life. I hear it is always harder
coming home. Ughhhh! Sigh! It still sucks getting up in the morning
but oh well what can you do. I have more energy these days. I think my
body has finally caught up to the mission schedule now too. The
language is coming. I’m understanding more and being able to
conversation easier so that’s fun. We are working with an investigator
who loves the missionaries and she will get baptized someday but it’s
going to take her a little while longer. She is building her faith and
as soon as she gets that confirmation it won’t be long. She is
awesome. She is struggling with her kids and she told me the other day
something that almost brought tears to my eyes. She said that she has
been looking back on how she raised her kids and she said ” I think I
did it wrong”, I just felt for her at that moment. I told her that’s
why we have Jesus Christ and his atonement. So that things we feel we
did wrong or things we want to improve, we can do it through Him. I
love seeing little changes in her life that bring her closer to God.
Even if she doesn’t quit realize it yet. Mineko is her name. It was
her and Shimizu Shimai ( a less active) who helped really love being a
missionary. I have a testimony of this church. I know it’s true. I
know God and Jesus live. And I hope everyone is preparing themselves
by reading there scriptures and praying day and night. Our kids will
learn good habits from there parents. Let us all be those good
examples and make sure we are creating the habits we want for our
kids. 🙂 ok there is my missionary rant!!! I love you all!!!! Bare
your testimonies as frequently as you can! Help find people who are
ready! Love you so much!